Page 39 of Worth the Ruin
“Report, Mendoza,” I bark as we stride towards him. Helene jogs up and hands me a rag, then helps Melody get Landry over to a bench to rest and get looked at again. I wipe some of the worst grime from my face as he lays it out for me.
“Four dead, nine injured, sir. Most are gunshot wounds—two are pretty serious—but…” He clenches his jaw and I already know what he’s going to say before the words pass over his lips. “O’Leary and Harrison were both bitten.”
“Fuck,” I grate.
“Harrison, uh, took care of herself as soon we got everything under control.” I clench my jaw but nod. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same if I were in her shoes. “O’Leary is around the back of the hardware store, sir. He requested you.” I nod and steel myself for what I’m going to have to do next.
“I’ll take care of them. Any survivors from the other side?”
“No, sir.”
I honestly don’t feel one way or another about that. I’ve been in this game too long and know that while the human part of me wants to save as many people as possible, the survivalist reasons that these people had attacked us and would have gladly killed us all. Tried their damndest to do just that, no questions asked. So, fuck them. In the end, I choose me and mine, just like they would choose them and theirs. Whether you’re the hero of the story or the villain completely depends on which side of the line you’re standing on. In this story, from my perspective, they’re the bad guys who had tried to hurt my people and we’re the heroes who fought back and won. The end.
I glance automatically to Melody and clench my jaw, replaying every second of this day over in my head, seeing all the ways it could have gone so, so wrong. Her features harden and her body goes tense as I watch and I frown at the sudden change. I follow her gaze and see Jett leaning against the end of the hardware store, half hidden in shadow. The look he’s giving her makes my blood boil and a quiet fury begin to prowl inside my chest. I’ve heard the rumors. I’ve seen his true self slip to the surface a time or two when he thought I wasn’t watching. He hides it fairly well around me, but I know the truth. I’ll be taking care of this little situation soon enough, but it has to be done in the right way. There are always reasons and plots in everything I do.
I force myself to leave it for now. I know he won’t do anything while I’m here, but as soon as he’s given the chance, I know he’llmake his move.Soon, fucker. We’re going to dance real fucking soon.
I take a deep, settling breath and head to the back of the hardware store. I pull out my pistol as I go and check the chamber.
I’ll only need one bullet for this part.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MELODY
“Alright!”Traeger calls, bringing everyone to attention after taking out O’Leary from what Helene told me. I admire him for being willing to handle things for his guys, but man, I can’t imagine having that on my shoulders.
“Teams of four in each building, starting on this street and working our way North. Let’s fuckin’ get this done.”
Now that the fighting is done and the aftermath and the Bloodies have been taken care of, it’s time to do what we came here to do in the first place and scavenge for supplies. It’s going to take a little longer than it originally would have since we lost so many to death and injury, but we’ll get it handled.
Traeger strolls over to me as I stand to join my group and holds out his hand expectantly.
“Seriously?”
“It isn’t that I don’t trust you,” he says, and I know it’s true. It’s the rule and, despite the emergency situation earlier, there’s no reason for him to bend the rules for me. Again, I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. So I sigh and hand my—his—gun over. He takes it and starts to turn away, but I grab his wrist.
“You need a bandage.” I look pointedly at his forearm and his brows draw down as he follows my gaze.
“Oh,” he says, seemingly surprised to find that he’s bleeding. “I’m fine.” I give him a level look, he sighs. “Alright, play nurse if you must,” he grumbles. He sits down on the curb and I grab supplies from the med kit Helene left out. She was an EMT back before the world ended, so she’d be much better at this than me, but I know enough. She has far worse injuries to attend to right now, so I can handle Traeger.
“Would be more fun if you had one of those outfits though,” he adds when I come back and start cleaning his wound.
“Into role playing, huh? Wouldn’t have guessed that based on everything I’ve heard.”
He laughs and I give him a small smile before I get to work picking small pieces of glass out of his arm. He inhales sharply and clenches his jaw, but other than that doesn’t react much.
“You shouldn’t have come after me,” I say quietly as I finish disinfecting and wrapping the cut with gauze and tape. “You could have gotten yourself killed.” I glance up to meet his gaze and wonder if he can see the unasked question there:why?Why risk his life like that?
“I had to, Melody. I…” He swallows hard but before he can say more, someone calls his name. He sighs and stands, his shoulders tense and straining under the weight of the world suddenly resting there.God, is he ever able to rest?
I nod, telling him to go ahead and do what he needs to do. I inhale softly when he reaches out and wipes his thumb across my cheek.
“You had some dirt,” he says in a low voice.
“Oh,” is all I manage to get out before his name is being called again. He drops his hand and walks away, and I blink, telling myself to get a fucking grip. I check on Wynn, who promises he’sfine, just tired and excited for the pain meds to kick in, and then join my assigned team to start sweeping buildings for supplies.
“Looks like there’s a big closet in the back if you want to check that out,” Wilson says a couple of hours later, nodding back towards the boutique he’d just exited, a box full of t-shirts and socks in his arms. I finished my assigned buildings, but don’t mind helping out some of the other groups to try to get things done quicker. I duck inside and look over the clothes as I make my way towards the back of the store. Cute stuff. I eye some of the dresses, half tempted to snag a few to bring back with me to FOS. There’s a “store” set up in the old gift shop where extra clothes are kept for anyone to take as needed. I decide to bring a bunch of stuff from this place back with me, knowing the female population of FOS would be very appreciative of some new cute items.
